The violence of modernity

Description:

"The Violence of Modernity looks to Charles Baudelaire, a canonical figure of literary modernism, in order to reclaim an aesthetic legacy for ethical inquiry and historical critique. Works of modern literature are commonly theorized as symptomatic responses to the trauma of history. In a climate that tends to privilege crisis over critique, Debarati Sanyal argues that it is urgent to rethink literary experience in terms that recall its contestatory potential. Examining Baudelaire's poems afresh, she shifts the focus of critical attention toward an account of modernism as an active engagement with violence, specifically the violence of history in nineteenth-century France."--Jacket.

subjects: Criticism and interpretation,  Violence in literature,  Baudelaire, charles, 1821-1867,  French literature,  History and criticism,  Psychic trauma in literature,  Literary criticism - general & miscellaneous,  French poetry - literary criticism,  Psychology & literature,  19th century french literature - literary criticism,  20th century french literature - literary criticism

People: Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)